


The Magnificent McCoy

by amcsummersgoddess



Category: Halex - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bad Puns, Drama, Fluff, Hank is adorkable, Happy Ending, Jealousy, M/M, Vloggers, Webcams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 13:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17961362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amcsummersgoddess/pseuds/amcsummersgoddess
Summary: Hank has a brilliant idea to start doing videos to make money. Alex, being his best friend, is somewhat supportive, but he is NOT a fan of some of the comments...





	The Magnificent McCoy

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [xmenrarepairs19](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/xmenrarepairs19) collection. 



> This turned out a whole lot longer than I expected and I have a whole lot of WIPS I should be focusing on instead but I couldn’t resist this prompt!! Enjoy! 
> 
> **Prompt:**
> 
> Hank cams for money cause the whole blue-eyed-innocence works for a lot of people, including Alex. But Hank also does cute daily videos where he talks about his interests and Alex might be a little in love.

“Okay go.”

“Is it on?”

Alex sighed and pressed the recording button on the camera to stop filming. “When I say ‘Okay go’ that means the camera is on and it’s ready to _go_ , got it?” Hank gave Alex a look of annoyance and Alex gave him one back. “I’m telling you, this is a stupid-

“It’s not stupid,” Hank grumbled and folded his arms across his chest, starting to pout like a child and only Alex could do that, that was his go-to look. “I need to make money and educating everyone on science is the best way to do it.” Hank leaned back in his folding chair, his eyes starting to get bigger with excitement. “Like growing up, I wish I had someone teaching me all the things that I wanted to learn and to be able to do that to other people is what really matters, you know?” Alex nodded, not really knowing, but Hank was his best friend so he wouldn’t tell him otherwise, not yet at least. 

Alex went ahead and started subtly recording. “So you’re going to make money off of doing basic science stuff for kids like probably thousands of other people online, what makes you different?”

“Well,” Hank started to smile and sat forward, “because everyone loves people with blue eyes, you know? Not that people with other color eyes are bad or anything, but blue eyes have more of an innocence to them.” Alex had never heard that before and he wasn’t sure he agreed because he had blue eyes himself and he was _far_ from looking or acting innocent. “But on a serious note,” Hank continued, “I honestly don’t know what makes me different. I just love science and I love helping people. I’m not expecting to be some overnight hit or some famous vlogger, I’m simply doing this out of pure enjoyment and seeing it as an opportunity to connect with people and make friends.”

Alex stopped recording then, knowing what Hank said would be absolutely perfect for his first video. “I’m your friend,” he pointed out and Hank shrugged. 

“Yeah but, it doesn’t hurt to have more.” 

“Right.” Alex cleared his throat and pressed the recording button again. “What’s your favorite branch of science?” 

Hank rested his hand on his chin and formed a thinking pose, looking insightful. “Genetics. I love studying DNA and RNA and nitpicking why those little fragments that make us up form certain things like blue eyes or green or brown or red hair or blond hair. It’s absolutely fascinating!” Hank smiled brightly then and Alex stopped recording. 

“You gonna do something about geophysics?”

Hank tilted his head to the side and gave Alex a soft smile. “Yes, I will because I know it’s your favorite, but if I do it I want you to do it with me, okay?” Alex shook his head and Hank frowned. “Why not?”

“Because we agreed that I would be _behind_ the camera and behind the camera only, not in front of it.”

“Fine, then I’m not doing a segment on geophysics,” Hank countered and crossed his arms over his chest, standing his ground. 

Alex rolled his eyes at his stubbornness even though Alex was just as stubborn as he was, and gave Hank a simple shrug. “Fine. People don’t really care much about it anyway,” he muttered under his breath. “Anyway, is that enough recording for today? Do you want to start editing or do a little bit more?”

Hank’s face scrunched up into confusion. “We didn’t even do any rec-you were recording me this whole time, weren’t you?” Alex shrugged and Hank shot him a look which made Alex laugh. “You’re evil.” 

“But evil gets the job done. Now come on Einstein, let’s edit this,” Alex unhooked the camera from his stand and grabbed his laptop from behind him, setting the objects down next to Hank and pulling up a chair. “So we only talked for about five minutes which is okay, it’s a good introduction video,” he started up his laptop and plugged his camera into it once it was fully loaded and started to play the recording back to Hank.

Alex would go back and edit his voice out because he definitely didn’t want it to be on there, and he hated how his voice sounded through recordings, it made him cringe. Hank, however, sounded completely normal and he looked very comfortable and overall happy. Alex knew Hank would be a complete hit because Hank was great, really he was. Most people didn’t know that though since Hank was pretty shy, but once people got to know him, he was amazing. Alex felt himself smiling as the recording ended and turned to look at Hank, who looked excited.

“So now what?” Hank turned to face him then and Alex quickly moved his attention back to his laptop and started to edit the video.

“Now I just do some of the editing and such and you can think up of some names you want to call yourself or your channel.”

“Hank the Helper?”

Alex snorted and kept his eyes focused on the screen. “You’re not Bob the Builder, Hank. Think of something deeper.”

It went quiet for a moment, the only sound in the room was Alex’s clicking and typing.

“What about hydrogen, reverse sodium, and potassium?”

Alex looked at Hank weirdly, wondering what the hell he just said. “ _Reverse_ sodium?”

“You know, Na, and H for hydrogen and K for potassium, it all spells out Hank.”

“It spells out Hnak,” Alex corrected. 

“That’s why it’s reverse sodium, it’s a play on words, a pun.” Alex resisted the urge to roll his eyes because he knew what a pun was! “And it’s either that or Hank the Helper.”

“Those are your only two options?” Hank nodded and Alex gave a small shake of his head and resumed to editing. “It’s up to you.” 

“But I want your opinion. Which one do you like better?”

Alex sighed, knowing he couldn’t quite lie about this. “Honestly I don’t like either of them but it’s your channel and it’s up to you.” Alex’s phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, looking to see it was a text from his mom. 

_Making dinner now, will you be home soon?_

“Gotta go,” Alex quickly saved the video and unhooked the camera, starting to pack up. “Just text me your final decision.”

“Will do. See you tomorrow?”

Alex nodded, his back faced to Hank and gave him a wave goodbye before heading out.

-  
Alex woke up to the sound of his phone ringing and he rolled over in bed and opened one eye to see it was almost two in the morning. Whoever was calling him better be offering him a billion dollars for interrupting his sleep. He grabbed his phone off the nightstand and looked to see Hank was calling him.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Alex grumbled into the phone and closed his eyes again, trying to fall back asleep.

“Two in the morning on Saturday, I’m aware,” Hank sounded completely awake on the other end and Alex knew he was a night owl but Alex _wasn’t_. “I was talking with Raven and she helped me figure out a name.”

“Just text it like I asked. Night-

“I know, but I got excited and I wanted to tell you.”

Alex sighed with defeat. “Alright, lay it on me.”

“The Magnificent McCoy!”

“You’re not a magician.”

“Well I like it,” Hank told him firmly, “and it’s my channel so it’s my decision. I’m not asking you to like it. Raven likes it though,” he added.

“Then just have her do it then.” Alex hung up the phone and turned it on silent before rolling over and going back to sleep.

When he woke up again, he was being shaken awake and he slowly opened his eyes to see Scott was standing over him and grinning down at him.

“What?” Alex wiped the sleep out of his eyes and Scott showed Alex his phone, Hank’s face being on the very front.

“He’s online!” Scott boasted and Alex snatched his phone and played the video. 

“Hello everyone, I’m The Magnificent McCoy,” Hank introduced with a warm smile, “and I’m here to talk to you all about science.”

The video continued to play and Alex gave Scott his phone back as he got out of bed and went over to his desk, seeing his camera and laptop were gone.

“Scott, did you see where my laptop and camera went?”

“Yeah, Hank came by this morning and said that you agreed to letting him borrow it till the afternoon.”

Alex took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, not wanting to take his anger out on his brother. “Right.” He quickly grabbed his shoes and slipped them on, breezing out of his room and grabbing his car keys before swinging the front door open, halting when Hank stepped on the porch, his stuff in hand.

“Alex-

Alex grabbed his stuff from him and slammed the door right in his face. If Hank wanted to go ahead and make videos and money without his help, then so be it. It wasn’t like Alex _cared_ or anything. 

He took his stuff back up to his room and with Scott gone, he closed and locked his door and got back into bed. He plugged his headphones in and turned his music loud enough to drown out _any_ possible noise. Alex declined all of Hank’s calls since they were interrupting his music and he didn’t want to talk to him now anyway. 

Alex opened his eyes when his phone vibrated and he looked to see Hank sent him a text.

_I’m sorry. I had no other choice but to have Raven help me but it was just that one time and I promise it won’t happen again._

Alex rolled his eyes and replied back:

_Whatever._

Immediately, Hank responded:

_You’re acting like a child._

Alex scoffed and paused his music, calling Hank right up and not even giving him a second to speak when he picked up.

“So now _I’m_ the one acting like a child? Who was it that practically stole my stuff?”

“You didn’t really give me a choice, Alex.”

“It’s my shit, Hank!” Alex exclaimed and stared at his camera sitting on his desk. “I don’t go in your house and take your things!”

“It was just a one time thing.”

“Yeah well,” Alex felt his gut starting to turn, “so was me filming you. I don’t want to do it anymore, never really did.” Hank went quiet on the other end but Alex knew he was still listening. “Hank-

The line dropped then and Alex pulled his phone back to see Hank had hung up on him. Alex pinched the bridge of his nose and laid back, playing his music once more as he lazily stared up at his ceiling. 

He didn’t mean anything he said, but he was just pissed off and he wasn’t even sure what about! Honestly, Alex didn’t care about the fact that Hank went ahead and borrowed his camera and laptop, he _was_ his best friend and anything that was Alex’s was his and vice versa. But Alex was mad about something but he couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was but whatever it was, he took it out on Hank, which made him feel like shit for doing so.

Alex grabbed his phone again and started a message to Hank.

_I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry._

Within a couple of minutes, the receipt changed from delivered to read but Hank didn’t respond and Alex knew it was the inevitable end of their friendship. And that fucking sucked. Alex had been friends with Hank for ten whole years, they’d been through everything together and they’ve had arguments before but none like this. 

Alex stared at his read receipt and closed out his messages and turned his music up louder before closing his eyes. Maybe he would be fine without Hank; Alex had other friends, he would be okay.

-  
The Magnificent McCoy came on every Saturday at noon.

It had been two whole weeks since Alex and Hank had spoken to each other and Alex was pretending like it was okay, even though it wasn’t, but he couldn’t dwell on it.

The Magnificent McCoy already had almost half a million subscribers, guess Hank was right about the whole blue eyes thing, and Alex was one of them. Well, he made a fake account where he liked Hank’s videos and subscribed to his channel because he couldn’t use his other one since Hank would know it was him. Regardless, Alex still tuned in at every episode and always hit the thumbs up button on his videos as well.

People loved Hank, of course they would love Hank, he was Hank. Alex wished he could be with him to celebrate his milestone but he wasn’t and maybe that’s what was bothering him so much, or the thousands of comments people left on his channel.

Did Alex read them? Every single one, _especially_ about the ones where some subscribers thought Hank was adorable and cute and someone said he was _sexy_. His subscribers wanted to date Hank and they didn’t even know him! It was ridiculous. Completely and utterly ridiculous.

Hank wasn’t helping either. Alex felt like he was egging them on because he started to do _daily_ videos where he talks about his life and interests and people were nearly falling in love with Hank!

And Alex couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t take not being with Hank when he made these videos or helping him edit it or simply just spending time with him. Alex missed him, he missed his best friend.

Alex would call him, if Hank didn’t pick up, then he would try again until he did. He reached over to his nightstand and grabbed his phone, calling Hank up.

“Hello?” Hank answered and Alex felt his eyes stinging with tears and when did he become so emotional?

“I-I miss you.” Hank went quiet on the other end and Alex was expecting him to hang up. “Can I come over?”

“You do know what time it is, right?” Alex then glanced at his clock, seeing it was almost midnight. 

“You’re still up though,” he pointed out teasingly and Hank let out a faint laugh.

“Yeah,” there was some shuffling on his end, “so do you just want to sleepover or do you want me to come to you?” Alex blinked, not really sure if he heard Hank correctly. 

“You want me to sleepover?”

“Yes.”

Alex immediately threw his covers off and slipped his shoes on. “Okay, I’ll be over in ten.” He got out of bed and flicked on his lights, grabbing his camera and laptop just in case, before quietly making his way downstairs where he left a note for his parents saying where he was before heading out.

The drive to Hank’s was nice and calm since there seemed to be no other cars on the road and Alex was there before he knew it.

He parked his car in the driveway and kept his stuff inside his car, he would get it in the morning if he needed to, and walked up to the front door, knocking quietly. 

Alex wasn’t _big_ on showing affection, not to Hank at least, but as soon as the door open, Alex hugged him. Hank was a little surprised since he was pretty stiff, but he soon relaxed into the hug and hugged him right back.

“I’m sorry.” 

“I missed you too,” Hank pulled back then and Alex let his hands drop to the side and everything just felt _different_. He felt different and Hank looked different but he wasn’t different but maybe Alex was seeing something that was always there that he was just now noticing. 

Alex found himself staring into his eyes and had they always been that blue? Maybe Hank was right about the whole eye thing and maybe that was why his subscribers found him cute and liked him and Alex _liked_ him. 

Alex took a step back and looked Hank up and down, butterflies starting to form in his stomach as he met his eyes again and yeah, Alex definitely had a crush on Hank. 

“Alex, are you just going to stand there or are you gonna come inside?” Hank’s voice snapped Alex out of his thoughts and he almost forgot where he was for a second. 

“I-I have to go,” he stumbled and turned around on his heel and started to walk to his car, speeding up his movements a little since he heard Hank following him.

“Alex, hey,” Hank grabbed his arm and turned him around and Alex felt his cheeks flush at the contact but thankfully it was too dark to tell, “Are you okay?” Alex nodded and started to chew on his lower lip. “Just come inside though, okay? I don’t want you driving back this time of night.”

“Hank-

“No buts. Now come on,” Hank dragged him inside and led him upstairs to his room where Hank had already set up a mattress on the floor for Alex to sleep on. “Get some sleep, we’ll talk in the morning.” Hank got settled back into his bed and Alex stared at him in shock. “What?”

“Talk about what?”

“You know.”

Did Hank know? No, he couldn’t _possibly_ know because Alex just figured out he liked Hank himself not even five minutes ago! Maybe Hank wanted to talk about something else entirely or maybe Hank had something to _tell_ Alex. 

“Alex,” Hank snapped his attention back and he was looking at him weirdly. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing, just tired,” he forced himself to yawn and laid down in the mattress, burying himself under the blankets, which smelled like Hank. “Night.”

“Night.”

Alex drummed his fingers against his chest as he heard Hank shuffle in his bed and Alex tried his _hardest_ to just go to sleep. But he couldn’t stop thinking about how he felt and what Hank wanted to talk about. It probably wasn’t what Alex thought it would be about, but he did wonder…

Before he knew it, it was morning and Alex didn’t get a single minute of sleep, but he wasn’t tired anyway. He was anxious up until Hank woke up but still pretty nervous when he followed him downstairs and the two of them munched on cereal. Well, Hank at the cereal, Alex twirled his spoon in the bowl and watched his cereal get soggy. 

“So,” Hank cleared his throat and Alex’s eyes flicked up to look at him, “I don’t want this to become in between us, Alex.” 

Alex felt his blood run cold. Hank knew. _How_ did he possibly know? Was he a secret telepath? Did Alex fall asleep without knowing it and say something? 

“But,” he continued, “I really want you to do this with me. I know we agreed to you just being behind the camera but I want you to do a segment with me.” Hank flashed him a warm smile then and Alex felt his thoughts scramble, not taking in anything Hank just said. 

“What?”

“Chemistry. I want you to do a segment on chemistry with me.”

“Oh,” Alex let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding, “Okay.” 

“Okay?” Hank repeated. “You’ll do it with me?” Alex nodded and Hank grinned. “Great! Trust me, you’ll enjoy it.” Honestly, Alex found that extremely hard to believe, but he would give it a shot. What was the worst that could happen?

-  
“Hello everyone and welcome back to The Magnificent McCoy!” Hank stared right at the camera with a grin Alex had never seen before. “Today we will be discussing chemistry and to help me with that is my best friend, Alex.” Raven shifted the camera over to Alex and he gave a tight smile and a small wave. “Alex overhear loves science as much as I do, right Alex?” Alex nodded. “What’s your favorite thing about chemistry?”

“Um,” Alex stared at the camera, then at Raven, then at the camera, then back at Hank, “the reactions?”

“Any in specific?”

“Combustion?”

Hank gave a nod of understanding. “Would you like to explain it?”

“It’s a exothermic reaction between a fuel and an oxidant. Like the wood in a campfire or burning coal even,” he explained and some loud dinging noise was heard. 

“That is our first commenter of the day!” Hank cheered and Alex was confused.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s livestream,” he whispered and that was just what Alex needed! “Cutiepatoot34 said: Alex is just so adorable,” he muttered and frowned down at his phone before looking up at the camera. “Anyone have any _science_ related comments?”

Hank’s phone dinged again and Alex looked over his shoulder, seeing swarms of comments were flooding in, all of them being about how cute or hot Alex was and he could tell Hank seemed a little annoyed by it. 

Raven turned the camera off without asking since she could probably tell Hank was getting annoyed and she mumbled an excuse before leaving the room, making Hank and Alex be alone.

“So,” Alex broke the awkwardness before it got a chance to form, “is there something wrong?”

“Yes,” Hank hissed and showed Alex his phone, scrolling through the now _thousands_ of comments. “All of the comments are about you and how cute you are and-

“You were the one who wanted me on the show,” Alex pointed out in defense.

“Yes, I know, but that’s not what I’m mad about.”

Mad? Why was Hank mad?

“What are you mad about?”

Hank shook his head and sighed. “I don’t like the way that people talk about you. Like this person says they would love to discuss chemistry with you all day and this person put the salivating emoji, whatever that means,” he grumbled.

“Hank,” Alex started slowly, his heart starting to beat slightly faster than before, “Are you _jealous_?”

“Jealous?!” Hank stood up then and glared down at Alex. “You think I’m jealous?”

Alex shrugged. “Yeah.”

“That’s ridiculous.” 

Alex’s heart sank to his stomach and he stood up as well, staring up at Hank when a glare of his own. “Then why are you acting like this?”

“I’m not acting like anything,” he huffed and Alex barked out a laugh. 

“Yeah, you are. I didn’t act like this when-

Alex cut himself off, not wanting to admit his feelings for Hank or the fact that he read the comments his viewers left about him. 

“When what?” Hank took a step closer to him and Alex took one back. When he did, his foot got trapped by the chair leg and he fell forward, right into Hank’s arms. “When what, Alex?”

Alex looked down at where Hank’s hands were to see they were wrapped around his waist and Alex looked up to see Hank was smiling softly down at him. “When I-I read what people said about you,” he admitted. “I get what they mean.”

“You read the comments?”

Alex nodded. “And watched the videos, and subscribed to the channel, and liked them.” He took in a deep breath, this was it. No going back after this. “And you. I like you.” 

“Are you a carbon sample?” 

Alex was _definitely_ lost. “Huh?”

“Because I want to date you,” Hank finished and Alex playfully rolled his eyes.

“Well,” he snaked his arms up to wrap around his neck, “you know why I like exothermic reactions? Because they remind me of you, they spread hotness everywhere you go.”

“And you call me a dork.” Hank shook his head at him and leaned his head down closer. 

“Because you are.”

“But I’m your dork.” 

Alex smirked. “Damn right.”

Hank pressed his lips up against Alex’s then and kissed him tenderly, making Alex’s heart jump excitedly. He kissed him back immediately and melted into Hank’s arms as Hank started to dominate the kiss, which Alex was way more than okay with.

After about a couple of minutes, Alex opened his eyes and glanced at the camera, seeing the recording button had been on this whole time. 

“Hank?”

“Hm?” Hank moved his kisses down to his neck, completely oblivious. 

“We’re still on.”

Hank pulled back and looked at Alex with shock, then at the camera. “Oh,” he gasped and cleared his throat. “Well, I guess you all got to see a different type of chemistry today! Stay tuned for the next episode! But if you’ll excuse Alex and I, we’re going to go form a covalent bond.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just two dorks in love <3
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
